Your Guide

Your Guide to Using the Innovation Exchange

Can anyone register to use the Innovation Exchange?

The Innovation Exchange is a free service for any organisations, companies, NHS members, individuals, or healthcare professionals with an interest in improving healthcare provision and in promoting innovation within the healthcare system. We may wish to gain feedback and highlight success stories to a wider audience from time to time. This will require you to include consents with the patients/public at the start of your project. Please be aware that the Health Innovation Exchange is open for unregistered users to access project information, therefore increasing the amount of exposure that your project receives.

What are the benefits of using the Innovation Exchange?

Registering to use the Innovation Exchange means details of your project will reach a wide audience of people from the NHS, academia and industry. We have recently merged the Yorkshire & Humber AHSN’s Health Innovation Exchange with that of The Innovation Agency, our counterparts in the north-west. This will create a larger audience for your project. You will be able to view details of projects on which other members are working, and members can view your project information. It’s an online forum for networking, sharing ideas and accessing resources.

The Health Innovation Exchange is open for all to view projects, but by registering with the Health Innovation Exchange you can:

submit your innovative solutions, projects, products and services to the Innovation Approval Panel for assessment. If accepted, your submission will receive a wide range of support

develop relationships with members to share solutions or simply learn from others’ experience

learn about innovative services, products and approaches already being supported and adopted by health and social care providers

describe your innovation as having been showcased on the Yorkshire & Humber AHSN’s Health Innovation Exchange (provide a link to the Exchange in your information)

What happens when I become a member?

You will receive an email to confirm your membership and will have access to other members and to a wide range of information and resources. When you register, you will be asked to select clinical areas that are of particular interest. You will then be sent a notification when a new project is added within those areas.

What information is needed when adding a project?

Project title

Images - this engages the viewer, although it's an optional requirement. Images should be hi-res and sized 975px width x 643px height to avoid distortion.

Project description - restricted to 250 words. Include a brief clear, project/product description (avoid jargon). Outline project benefits (impact on health/cost/time/efficiency), highlight any pilot scheme outcomes/anticipated outcomes and any awards received (HSJ nominations for example). Include any tangible results to date, where/when/how the project/product is being rolled out (if applicable), and any future plans. The project description should indicate whether the Innovation is at Tier 1, 2 or 3 (see definitions below).

Media – this enables you to include documents, presentations and videos relevant to your project.

Category tags – tags categorise the project to enable a quick search to take place. If a category is not applicable to your project, please select ‘Other’.

Author details - name, organisation, contact detail

Make project private - for use if intellectual property rights are impacted for the user.

Publishing options – this allows the Yorkshire & Humber AHSN editorial rights. No innovations will be published without approval (see below). All projects will enter the ‘holding section’ to await approval.

It is the responsibility of the person or organisation submitting the innovation onto the Innovation Exchange to ensure the information and evaluation data submitted is accurate, relevant and up to date. We will contact you every 6 months for an update on your project.

What happens when I submit an innovative solution, project, product or service which I think provides an innovative health and social care solution?

Once you have become a member you can submit an application for support. When you make a submission, we will let you know if we require further information. We will contact you when your submission is to go before our Innovation Approval Panel and keep you informed about progress. The following process will be used in assessing new projects:

Tier 1 - Proven innovations, products and services

Definition - innovations with evidence of impact against clear outcomes with the ability for adoption across the health ecosystem. Tier 1 innovations will have gone through a formal due diligence process and be a recognised innovation in the field. Examples could include HSJ awards, NICE clinical trials, NHS Innovation Accelerator, University evaluation studies with impact etc.

Innovations of this standard will be authorised for inclusion by the Approval Panel. This will result in a Yorkshire & Humber AHSN approved innovation endorsement.

Tier 2 - Innovations, products and services under evaluation with potential for adoption

Definition - innovations that have yielded promising results (without formal academic review) and indicate that further trials and spread into our ecosystem would prove beneficial.

Innovations of this standard will be authorised for inclusion by the Approval Panel. This will result in a Yorkshire & Humber AHSN approved innovation endorsement.

Tier 3 – Innovation in development

Definition: These are innovations that individuals and organisations wish to share across the eco system but have not yet yielded substantial results.

Tier 4 – Innovation ideas and support

These are ideas for innovations which are seeking support for development, or support networks available for innovators.

Innovations of this standard will be authorised for inclusion by the Yorkshire & Humber AHSN’s Approval Panel.

Note: For all projects approved by the Approval Panel, the online forum is a mechanism to share ideas and help the spread of innovation.

Innovation Approval Panel

The Innovation Approval Panel meets on the first Friday of every month. The panel includes experts from across our ecosystem with the necessary skill and experience for any particular innovation to be approved. Standing members of the panel will include:

Commercial Partnerships and Projects Manager

Commercial Director

Programme Manager

Experts will be co-opted as required

The Innovation Approval Panel will continuously review the innovations on the Innovation Exchange in order to ensure they are of the highest quality.

Who can see the project information I enter into the Innovation Exchange?

In order to gain maximum exposure for the products and services that are featured on the Innovation Exchange, people are able to view information without having to register. Please be aware of not sharing confidential information that you do not want other users to see. If you would like your project to remain private so that only you and staff at the Yorkshire & Humber AHSN and The Innovation Agency can see the project details, please use the ‘make private’ button when entering your project information.

I have seen a project that I am interested in finding out more about. How do I contact the project owner?

The Innovation Exchange includes a messaging service so that you are able to send a message to a project owner. On the right hand margin of a project’s page there are also links to the project owner’s website and Twitter page (if they have chosen to provide them). Project owners should regularly check their message box (accessible via My Account) for any incoming messages.

How do I add my contact details to my project information?

If you would like to add the address for your website and Twitter page to your own project information, please select the ‘my account’ option on the top tool bar and select ‘account details’ from the drop down list.

How do I edit / delete the details of a project that I have added?

If you would like to edit or delete the details of a project, select the ‘my account’ option on the top tool bar and select ‘my projects’ from the drop down list. You will then see an icon relating to each of your projects with the option to ‘view’, ‘edit’ or ‘delete’ underneath.

If you have a specific question about your project, please email info@yhahsn.com with the subject heading ‘Query: Innovation Exchange’